Sand Mage of the Burnt Desert-Chapter 572

Chapter 572

Behemoth had devoured many magical beasts and absorbed their traits and authorities.

The crimson scales that covered his skin were one of the traits he had obtained in that manner.

Deep underground lived a magical beast called the Dark Mole.

Having adapted to the immense pressure and extreme heat of the subterranean depths, its skin and claws had evolved to become as hard as diamond.

The Dark Mole was powerful enough to hunt and devour sandworms several times larger than its own body.

Behemoth had devoured the Dark Mole and obtained scales harder than his previous hide. Yet Zeon’s Diamond Spear pierced through those scales like glass and penetrated all the way into his organs.

Of course, a wound of this degree would not take Behemoth’s life. But it could inflict great pain.

—I will not forgive you.

Enraged, Behemoth fired a beam of destruction.

Zeon rode the sand and moved, evading the destructive beam.

The beam instead swept over the Awakened who were waiting in the rear.

“Aaagh!”

“Ugh!”

The Awakened struck by the beam melted away with screams.

Dozens of Awakened vanished without a trace in an instant. The sight itself was terror.

The strike captains of each district shouted,

“Get a grip and keep your eyes open. Zeon can’t protect your lives too.”

“Yes!”

The Awakened answered and focused on the battlefield.

Behemoth, wounded by Diamond Spear, was rampaging wildly.

His fury was concentrated on Zeon.

Zeon used the Sand Soldiers to relentlessly attack its head and eyes.

If they had been ordinary Sand Soldiers, they would never have been able to wound Behemoth’s body.

But Sand Soldiers imbued with ultra-high heat were a different matter.

Zeon had infused them with flames through the Authority of Fire.

Kwang! Kwaaaang!

Under Behemoth’s destructive beams, the Sand Soldiers burst apart or melted down.

But Zeon did not become disappointed or discouraged.

He still had plenty of mana remaining.

He could summon as many Sand Soldiers as he wished and still had means to attack Behemoth.

Most encouraging of all was that while he held Behemoth back, the Awakened who had reorganized their ranks were beginning to rejoin the battle.

At their forefront stood the Numbers.

“Cha-at!”

When Grain crushed Behemoth’s head with gravity, the twin sisters disrupted its mind with telepathy.

Old Man Go’s barrier bound Behemoth tightly, and in that opening martial-type Awakened clung to it while magic-types unleashed concentrated bombardment from afar.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!

A single ant is nothing, but when hundreds of thousands bite at once, the story changes.

Even a massive hippopotamus can fall under a swarm of ants.

That was the situation now.

Behemoth possessed a body as massive as a mountain, but because of that, he could not evade the attacks unleashed by hundreds of elite Awakened.

The force field and scales that had protected his body had long since been shattered. Wounds had formed where the ants’ teeth could sink in.

Grain shouted,

“Target the abdomen.”

The abdomen, grievously wounded by Diamond Spear, became the focus of the Awakened.

They clung to it stubbornly and stabbed into the wound.

Behemoth attempted to shake them off, but Zeon interfered.

“Diamond Spear!”

He unleashed his trump card skill once again.

A massive diamond spear shot up abruptly from beneath Behemoth’s feet.

In that instant, sensing danger, Behemoth activated a skill.

Shuuuu!

Suddenly, Behemoth’s massive body disappeared.

As a result, the Diamond Spear Zeon had created pierced only empty air.

“Huh?”

“What?”

The Awakened who had been enthusiastically attacking Behemoth looked around in shock.

Seong Hoyeon shouted,

“It’s spatial movement.”

Before he could even finish speaking, Behemoth reappeared.

The place it appeared was exactly where the magic-type Awakened were standing.

As the enormous body exceeding a hundred meters manifested abruptly, the magic-types panicked, not knowing what to do.

—Die!

Behemoth raised his massive foot and brought it down toward the magic-type Awakened.

There was no time to evade.

At this rate, the magic-types would be crushed into pulp.

At that moment—

Gulleong!

Suddenly, the sand rose like a tidal wave and slammed into Behemoth’s flank.

Kwang!

With a thunderous roar, Behemoth’s enormous body staggered.

No matter how massive his body was, he could not avoid being greatly shaken by the immense mass attack of a sand tidal wave rising a hundred meters high.

The one who had created the sand tidal wave was Zeon.

Riding the sandstorm, Zeon looked down at Behemoth and muttered,

“Sand Tsunami.”

It was a tidal wave made of sand.

A skill Zeon had devised to deal with magical beasts possessing massive bodies like Behemoth.

Kwang! Kwaaaang! Kwaang!

The Sand Tsunami struck Behemoth again and again.

Under the immense mass attack, Behemoth staggered and fell sideways.

The penetrating wound in his abdomen, pierced by Diamond Spear, was fully exposed.

“Now! All-out attack!”

Not missing the opening, the Awakened unleashed a full assault.

Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!

Numerous attacks hammered Behemoth’s abdomen.

The wound burned, tore open, and chunks of flesh were ripped away.

The penetrating injury grew larger and deeper.

Naturally, Behemoth’s pain intensified.

Unable to endure the agony, Behemoth finally let out a scream.

—Kraaaah!

With the scream, Behemoth’s entire body turned red.

Sensing something ominous, the strike captains shouted,

“Damn it!”

“Everyone fall back!”

The moment their words ended, the scales covering Behemoth’s body exploded.

Kwaaaang! 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

With the explosion, the scales flew in all directions.

Fortunately, those who crouched at the captains’ warning or were lucky managed to avoid them.

But those who were unlucky or slow in movement were not granted such fortune.

“Aaagh!”

“Keuh!”

The bodies of the Awakened struck by the scales were torn apart like sheets of paper.

Many Awakened lost their lives in that instant.

Grain approached Zeon, who was standing in midair riding the sandstorm.

Floating by adjusting gravity, Grain said to Zeon,

“Attacking in this scattered way won’t yield results. We have to cut off its life in a single strike.”

“I know.”

“I’ll create one opportunity. You must sever its life.”

“Me?”

“Yes. The protagonist of today’s battle is not us. It’s frustrating, but with our skills we cannot inflict a fatal wound on it.”

Grain did not hide his frustration.

He possessed the fraudulent ability of gravity control.

No matter how strong an Awakened was, once caught in his gravity, they would be crushed flat like a bedbug.

But against that gigantic magical beast, his ability did not work well.

Its body was too massive, easily enduring even immense pressure.

With Grain’s ability, it was impossible to crush Behemoth’s enormous body all at once. At best, he could only significantly affect its head.

Even that was remarkable, but it was not enough to sever Behemoth’s life.

The same was true for Seong Hoyeon and the other strike captains.

All of them were Awakened with exceptional abilities, but none had experience hunting a magical beast of such magnitude alone.

Among them, the only one who possessed both such experience and capability was Zeon.

They did not know how a Sand Mage could use a skill like Diamond Spear, but at present, only his skill had the possibility of cutting off Behemoth’s life.

—How dare mere humans…

Behemoth, who had fallen sideways, was rising again.

The wounds inflicted by the Awakened were healing rapidly.

As befitting a beast of destruction, he even possessed super regeneration.

If the wounds fully healed, hunting Behemoth would become even more distant.

This was the only chance.

The opportunity to hunt that colossal beast of destruction.

If he completely recovered, a moment like this would never come again.

As Grain flew toward Behemoth, he said,

“Then I’ll leave the rest to you.”

Reaching Behemoth’s head, Grain unleashed Gravity Increase with all his might.

He did not think of what would come after.

With only the determination to crush and burst Behemoth’s head in this very moment, he poured out all his strength.

Kwachik!

As Behemoth was lifting his head, he was slammed down under gravity increased dozens of times.

Not missing that opening, the Numbers unleashed their skills at maximum output.

The strike captains and the Awakened still able to move also gave their all.

They did not think about what would follow.

Only desperation filled their minds.

The fear that if they failed to stop Behemoth here, the place where they and their families lived would be destroyed drove them to their utmost effort.

At this moment, they were one.

Human, elf, dwarf—they all gave everything.

Though they were usually divided by districts and stood opposed, before the crisis of Neo Seoul, they did not distinguish between you and me. They gave their all.

Under their desperate struggle, Behemoth’s colossal body finally stiffened as if struck by a curse.

Grain shouted,

“Now!”

Zeon did not answer.

He was already concentrating his mind.

He had already dismissed the Sand Soldiers.

Even the mana consumed in maintaining them had to be conserved.

At last, having finished all preparations, Zeon unleashed his skill.

“Diamond Spear!”

Shuuuu!

A Diamond Spear several times thicker than before shot up into the sky.

Puuk!

The Diamond Spear pierced straight through the wound in Behemoth’s abdomen and burst out through his back.

—Kraaaah!

In tremendous pain, Behemoth screamed.

No matter how mighty a magical beast, one could not move normally with its torso skewered like a kebab. Yet his breath still had not been severed.

Even while writhing in agony, he struggled to break free from the Diamond Spear.

The sight of Behemoth like that filled everyone with fear.

“It’s still not dead?”

“Fuck!”

“Tougher than a cockroach!”

They were struck dumb by Behemoth’s overwhelming vitality.

Even after being pushed this far, he still did not die and struggled to move. The sheer presence of Behemoth made it hard to breathe.

Grain, Seong Hoyeon, and the strike captains all lacked even the strength to move in their emptiness.

At that moment—

Flash!

A gigantic bolt of lightning suddenly struck Behemoth’s head.

“Hyung!”

The owner of the voice calling Zeon was Levin.

Levin, in his ghost form, had unleashed Giga Lightning.

Under the all-out lightning attack, Behemoth’s body was paralyzed for a moment.

In that instant, Zeon’s eyes flashed.

Chwareureu!

As Diamond Spear was released, an enormous amount of sand poured through the gaping hole.

Electrocuted by Giga Lightning, Behemoth could not block the sand entering his body.

Judging that enough sand had entered Behemoth’s body, Zeon squeezed out his remaining mana and unleashed his final skill.

“Sand Mixer!”

Gaaaanng!

Inside Behemoth’s body, the sand rotated violently.